Posts Tagged ‘Dollar Store Crafts’

iLoveToCreate: Upcycled Paperclip Necklace

Here’s to a colorful and elegant twist on that old office cube classic: the paperclip chain. I was inspired to make it after spying a similar necklace that my friend Rebecca was wearing in the office a couple of weeks ago. When she told me that she scored the amazingly simple accessory while on vacation in Cambodia earlier this year, that’s when I experienced the creative flash of an I-could-so-make-that moment: Seeing as I won’t be able to afford travel to Cambodia anytime soon (I wish!), I decided to set out on a far more affordable trip…to the local 99-cent store.

Materials:
-box of paperclips
-all-purpose scissors
-ruler
-woven plastic material (laundry bag from the dollar store, an Ikea shopping bag, all-purpose tarpaulin from the hardware store)*
–Aleene’s Jewel-It Embellishing Glue

Make it:
1. Link 38 to 48 paperclips in a chain. Hang the chain around your neck, see if you like the length, and add or subtract paperclips to your liking.

2. Measure and cut one 1 1/2″ by 1 1/4″ rectangle from the woven bag. Use that rectangle as a template to cut more rectangles. Cut as many rectangles as there are paperclips in your chain.

3. Select one rectangular piece. Fold the long sides in 1/4″ and crease. Then fold the piece in half lengthwise, crease it, and unfold. Fold the two short ends into the center line and crease again.

4. Refold the center crease, pinching the piece around the center of a paperclip in the chain to create a sort of “bead.”

5. Squeeze the glue generously along the open edge (the motion is sort of like mustard on a hotdog). Pin it in place with a spare paperclip to dry.

6. Repeat with the remaining rectangular pieces until every link on the paper chain is covered by a bead. Let the beads dry completely before removing the spare paperclips.

7. Remove the paperclips, touch up any finicky beads with an extra dab of glue, and repeat the entire process as many times as desired to create multiple colorful chains.

8. Drape them around your neck, and off you go.

Happy National Craft Month!

*Incidentally, these necklaces are made from the same sort of bags that Rami made his chic challenge-winning Project Runway All-Stars dollar store dress from, below! What a cool material to play with.

All photos by Megan Nicolay except for the Project Runway screenshot, via SheKnows.com.

[ 4 Comments | Posted on March 27th, 2012 ]

Adventures at CHA 2011

Here are some highlights of the people, places, and products I visited (along with my friend and partner in crafty crime, Sonya Nimri, author or Beadalicious and Just for the Frill of It) while exploring the floor for three days at CHA 2011. (They’re a little out of order, so forgive the costume changes!)

First off, Sonya and I met up with mixed media artists Alisa Burke and Traci Bautista, and graphic designer Alexa Westerfield at the iLovetoCreate booth.

Sonya and I just had to drop our bags and park ourselves at the iLovetoCreate make-and-take that Alisa was running–coloring a craft apron with Tulip and Crafty Chica fabric markers! The results are below–a Generation T especiale with measuring tape, scissors, T-shirt, and pin cushion by me–and two platypuses in love by Sonya.

The mannequins at the iLovetoCreate booth had some crazy-mazing get-ups thanks to many of their creative staffers and bloggers!

Then I learned to crochet for the second time (here was my first attempt) at the Simplicity booth with Drew Emborsky, aka the Crochet Dude. I completed a silver and black sparkly necklace in about 20 minutes = success!

We met up with fellow iLovetoCreate bloggers, Kathy Cano-Murillo, Margot Potter, and Avalon Potter.

I bumped into Sublime Stitcher Jenny Hart, who was at CHA to cover the event for Craftzine, and met Cathy Callahan, author of the forthcoming Vintage Craft Workshop (due out Spring 2011). We couldn’t resist posing beneath this cheery paper flower arbor.

Speaking of colorful settings, Sonya and I hug it out at the dreamy Red Heart lounge where they were celebrating 75 years!

In the “innovation hall,” make-your-own silly bands at Shapelets were a hot stop. And while we noted that Silly Bandz are so over in an even-the-SillyBandz-company-was-selling-snap-bracelets-at-the-recent-NY-Gift-Show kind of way, making Shapelets was refreshing for its DIY spirit of self-expression. Those are my star-shaped bands cooling on the pegboard along with Sonya’s completed mushroom bands!

I stopped for an impromptu interview with Cathie and Steve on Plaid Craft TV — they have a new web show coming out soon, so check it out!

And look, while they were interviewing me, Sonya’s segment from Plaid Craft TV was playing on the lower right monitor!

Here we are with Cathie and Steve — along with Amy Anderson, chief blogger at Mod Podge Rocks!

We stopped in to play with Melody Ross’s ChipArt tools–but forget chip board, we hammered words and initials to personalize leather bracelets at this make-and-take!

Everybody remember everyone’s favorite 3rd-person-speaking, faux-hawked contestant on Project Runway Season 5? Suede was at the far end of the Simplicity booth, signing copies of his new patterns and–what have we here?–refashioning T-shirts. Here we are with two of his laced-up, fringed-up, tied-up tees.

Non sequitor: I’m just in love with these framed disembodied hands and lanterns. I want them for my wall. (P.S. They’re from Tim Holtz‘s Idea-ology booth.)

Blogger meet-up! Stefanie Girard of Sweater Surgery, the Creative Craft Goddess Vicki O’Dell, Jenny Barnett Rohrs of Craft Test Dummies, and Jon Lee of Provocraft.

One of the finalists from So You Think You Can Dance Season 4, spinning on his head in a dance-off at the Provocraft 5-year birthday celebration for the Cricut. I think that’s a solid way to wrap up the round-up, right?

Oh, but while he’s spinning on his noggin, I’m not quite done… I’ve exhausted my photos, but the other sweet happenings included meeting Heather Mann of Dollar Store Crafts, the VP at Colonial Patterns (the company responsible for the Aunt Martha’s robot embroidery iron-ons), Kristen Turner of Threadbanger’s VainGlorious, and Ohio Knitting Mills author Steven Tatar.

And, the make-and-takes kept coming: from paper flower brooches, to etched glass, to paper-wrapped bangles, to old-school friendship bracelets. Another highlight of the weekend was the flip book that Sonya and I made at the entrance to the Cricut birthday party–it’s like a party photo booth turned up to 11–lots of costume props, plus 7 seconds to move around and goof off, then it’s printed, cut, and stapled into a mini personalized flip book!

So that’s it…until next CHA!

[ Comments Off on Adventures at CHA 2011 | Posted on February 15th, 2011 ]